You get the chance to learn a lot of fun stuff working with cameras, printers and related peripheral which really helps you to develop future hobbies and talk intelligently with others about these matters... Perhaps not so much with the printer stuff but at least for photography where there are so many geeks about with a camera nowadays, it's good to at least know the technical aspects of photography to carry a conversation, or help you yourself improve on your existing photography skills. Senior staff tended to be caring toward temp staff (both contract and non-contract), and shift allocation is generally fair and flexible which is great for a vacation job. You generally get a good range of teenagers, young adults, middle-aged and senior workers around so you get plenty to interact with around. On an organisational level, you can see that Canon takes care of its staff, in typical Japanese fashion seniority is prized: staff get generous benefits and retention awards and gifts e.g. a new Canon high-end DSLR, so it's kind of cool for temps when you get to be a part of that experience seeing the perm staff celebrate their career milestones in a unique way.
Pay is a little on the low side for this sort of work and you don't receive a commission despite pouring your soul into making a close because ultimately, when the customer is satisfied with your sales pitch and wants to buy, you can't sell it to him directly, but you gotta refer him to an authorized reseller because Canon does not do direct sales. That can be a bad point for those who want to get into it for the commissions and thrill of the sale, but I sometimes find it liberating because you don't operate under a quota that way so you can just be honest and ethical in your practice with the customer, and try to truly serve the customer's interest like a good customer service assistant rather than to be an unscrupulous salesman. Work can be a little menial and tough, especially when you are helping out with gift redemptions (post-PC shows) and the like and that reduces the time you otherwise have to stand around and look glam, or to discuss photography and cameras with some customer which is a little more stimulating. Also, as with a customer service job, you can expect from time to time the nasty, complaining customer who cannot be placated easily - mostly, you can refer this to the senior perm staff though, and you can just stand back and watch and learn, so you learn a bit about people skills this way too actually, as long as you can take the initial heat of the grumpy customer. There's a degree of politics you can witness that occurs at the higher levels, but part-timers and temps are insulated from that; you hear it more from the perm staff talking among themselves about others in other departments and in higher chains of management. If you're really affected by these things then perhaps your work satisfaction might be impacted a little, but for the most part again, this doesn't concern the part-timer but... Just be watchful about mood changes among the perm staff who are affected by the winds of change and political intrigue, and don't be triggering them off at the wrong time.
